US called coordinated Afghanistan attack ‘cowardly,’

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2012-04-16 05:42:10 - By sagarmedia on April 16, 2012 |
US State Department on Sunday called the wave of coordinated attacks across Afghanistan ‘cowardly,’ and praised the “swift and effective response” of Afghan forces. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the US ambassador to Kabul, Ryan Crocker, to “discuss the cowardly attacks in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan” and to confirm US personnel were safe, the State Department said.

Hillary Clinton called the US ambassador to Kabul, Ryan Crocker, to “discuss the cowardly attacks in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan” and to confirm US personnel were safe, the State Department said.Clinton “asked Ambassador Crocker to convey to President Karzai the United States’ appreciation for the swift and effective response of Afghan National Security Forces,” her spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.Clinton “also asked him to convey that her thoughts are with all those affected by the violence.” The assault, one of the most serious on the capital since U.S.-backed Afghan forces removed the Taliban from power in 2001, highlighted the ability of militants to strike the heavily guarded diplomatic zone even after more than 10 years of war.

It was also another election-year setback in Afghanistan for U.S. President Barack Obama, who wants to present the long campaign against the Taliban as a success before the departure of most foreign combat troops by the end of 2014. “These attacks are the beginning of the spring offensive and we had planned them for months,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters. He said the onslaught was revenge for a series of incidents involving American troops in Afghanistan – including the burning of Korans at a NATO base and the massacre of 17 civilians by a U.S. soldier – and vowed that there would be more such attacks. Heavy fighting erupted again more than five hours after the Taliban first struck, as dusk was falling over the capital and as mosques were issuing calls to prayer.
Taliban said the main targets were the German and British embassies and the headquarters of the NATO-led force. Several Afghan members of parliament joined security forces repelling attackers from a roof near the parliament. Large explosions shook the diplomatic sector of Kabul. Billows of black smoke rose from embassies while rocket-propelled grenades whizzed overhead. Heavy gunfire could be heard from many directions as Afghan security forces tried to repel Taliban fighters. Explosions and gunfire rocked the Afghan capital Kabul Sunday as suicide bombers struck across Afghanistan in coordinated attacks claimed by Taliban insurgents as the start of a spring offensive. The US, British, German and Japanese embassy compounds came under fire as militants attacked the city’s diplomatic enclave and tried to storm parliament. Security forces moved President Hamid Karzai to a safe area. Taliban fighters, some of them dressed in women’s head-to-toe covering burqas, also launched simultaneous assaults in three other provinces of Afghanistan. In the eastern city of Jalalabad, they attacked a foreign force base near a school and a blast went off near the airport. The Ministry of Interior said 19 insurgents, including suicide bombers, died in the encounters across the country and two were captured. Fourteen police officers and nine civilians were wounded. U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker said it was unlikely the Afghan Taliban had the capacity to launch Sunday’s attacks on its own, and speculated that the Haqqani network – whose fighters are based in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area – were involved. “The Taliban are really good at issuing statements. Less good at actually fighting,” he told CNN. “My guess, based on previous experience here, is this is a set of Haqqani network operations out of north Waziristan and the Pakistani tribal areas. Frankly I don’t think the Taliban is good enough.” Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told Reuters initial findings showed that the Haqqanis were involved in Sunday’s attacks.
United States accused Pakistan of having links to the Haqqanis last year after an attack on the U.S. embassy and other targets in Kabul that it blamed on the group. The Haqqani network is one of the most divisive issues between Washington and Islamabad, whose relations were badly damaged last year by the unilateral American raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani town. The attacks in Kabul come a month before a NATO summit at which the United States and its allies are supposed to put finishing touches on plans for transition to Afghan security control, and days before a meeting of defense and foreign ministers in Brussels to prepare for the Chicago summit. The assaults appeared to repeat the tactics of an attack last September when insurgents entered construction sites to use them as positions for rocket and gun attacks. Witnesses said insurgents entered a multi-storey construction site overlooking the diplomatic triangle and behind a supermarket. There they unleashed rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire, protected from the view of security forces by green protective netting wrapped around the skeleton of the building. Sunday’s attack took place hours after dozens of Islamist militants stormed a prison in neighboring Pakistan in the dead of night and freed nearly 400 inmates, including one on death row for trying to assassinate former President Pervez Musharraf. Pakistan’s Taliban movement, which is close to al Qaeda, said it was behind the brazen assault by militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 assault rifles. Pakistan’s Taliban are closely linked with their Afghan counterparts. They move back and forth across the unmarked border, exchange intelligence, and provide shelter for each other in a region Obama has described as “the most dangerous place in the world”. Pakistan’s Taliban have said in recent months they would boost cooperation with the Afghan Taliban in their fight against U.S.-led NATO forces. Both the attacks in Afghanistan and the jailbreak in Pakistan underscore Pakistan’s failure to tackle militancy on both sides of the border eleven years after joining the U.S.-led campaign against Islamist militancy. Washington has repeatedly urged the Pakistani military to go after the Haqqani network, which is believed to be based in Pakistan’s North Waziristan region on the Afghan border. Evidence that the Haqqanis were behind the latest attacks in Afghanistan could hamper efforts to patch up U.S.-Pakistan ties between the strategic allies.
The Taliban said in a statement that “tens of fighters”, armed with heavy and light weapons, and some wearing suicide-bomb vests, carried out the multi-pronged assault. Taliban spokesman Mujahid said it had been easy to bring fighters into the capital, and they had had inside help to move heavy weapons into place. He did not elaborate. Afghan security forces, who are responsible for the safety of the capital, scrambled to reinforce areas around the so-called green diplomatic quarter. Attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade that landed just outside the front gate of a house used by British diplomats, and two rockets hit a British Embassy guard tower near the Reuters office. There was fighting at some facilities of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and near the U.S., Russian and German embassies. Attackers also fired rockets at the parliament building in the west of the city. Most MPs had left the building before it came under attack, said a lawmaker. One of several who fought back from a roof, Naeem Hameedzai, told Reuters: “I’m the representative of my people and I have to defend them.” Afghan media said fighters stormed the Star Hotel complex near the presidential palace and Iranian embassy. The hotel’s windows were blown out and smoke billowed from the building.

Taliban suicide bombers hit Kabul,attacked Jalalabad, Logar, Paktia their primary targets were western military and diplomatic installations.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai was moved to a safe area and the presidential palace went into lockdown as the capital Kabul was hit by a wave of attacks Sunday, an aide said.The embattled president was discussing the budget with a group of lawmakers when explosions and gunfire rocked three locations in the capital, including an upmarket diplomatic enclave close to his office, media source said.Heavily-armed Taliban suicide bombers on Sunday unleashed a wave of coordinated attacks in Afghanistan with several explosions and gunfire rocking the diplomatic area and Parliament in Kabul and three other cities but no Indian target was attacked. Gunmen launched series of attacks in the Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday, assaulting Western embassies in the heavily guarded, central diplomatic area and at the parliament in the west, the officials media said.

According to India's Ambassador to Afghanistan Gautam Mukhopadhyay, all Indians were safe. ITBP Director General Ranjit Sinha said there was no threat to the Indian embassy as it was located three to four km away from the scene of the attack this afternoon by the Taliban gunmen who came from different directions in perhaps an unprecedented assault of this nature.Taliban claimed responsibility for around a dozen attacks by the gunmen in central Kabul which has stunned Afghan authorities. Any casualties is still unknown but Kabul police chief Mohammad Ayoubi Salangi was quoted as having said one attacker had been killed near the Parliament.

The militants attacked five-star Kabul Star Hotel in Wazir Akhbar Khan area of the capital and some tried to enter the Afghan parliament firing rockets but were engaged by security forces and driven back, officials said.An unknown number of Taliban men armed with light and heavy weapons targeted Afghan governmental and International offices in three different areas of Kabul, police said. A number of Taliban militants took positions at a newly-build building at the Shahr-e-Naw, a neighborhood of Kabul. They battled with Afghan forces for several hours after the militants began assaulting Western embassies.The building is located close to American embassy, Turkey embassy, presidential palace, Iranian embassy, ISAFs headquarters, German embassy, UK embassy and different other diplomatic offices."I am on the spot and hearing the gunfire being traded between the suicide bombers and Afghan forces. Until now I heard several explosions," a news agency correspondent reported from the scene of attack.

In central Kabul, insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and rifles from an unfinished eight-story commercial building. From their perch, at least four men fired in the direction of the German Embassy and NATO’s military headquarters, both of which were just a few hundred yards from the attackers.
This is a message that our spring offensive has begun,” said Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, who said the primary targets were western military and diplomatic installations.In a text message to the reporters, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said: "Today, afternoon, at 1 pm, suicide bombings are happening by our Mujaheddeen at the ISAF headquarters, Parliament building, and other diplomatic offices in Kabul, and our enemies got many casualties." The militants also struck at an airport in Jalalabad, Logar and Paktia. A few others Taliban militants armed with heavy weapons positioned at a newly-build building are targeting Afghan parliament at the Darul Aman area of Kabul. The battle is ongoing between Afghan and Taliban militant forces, Afghan private tv, Tolo Tv, said. Another group of militants are targeting an ISAFs base, Turkish military base, and a training camp of Afghan National Army at Pule Charkhi area of Kabul. They are targeting them from a building which they took under their control.According to the eyewitness, suicide bombers had taken over the newly-built five-star hotel in Kabul, which was reportedly on fire.
Outside Kabul, two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the gates to Jalalabad airport in eastern city of Nangarhar province, wounding several people, police said.

Four bombers tried to enter the airport and two detonated their explosives when they were stopped at the gate, officials said.Two others were wounded and arrested.Taliban militants also attacked ISAF's Provincial Reconstruction Team, Or PRT, in Jalalabad."The battle is going on," Tolo tv said."In Jalalabad, several mujahidin attacked airport and PRT compound. The fighting is going on and our mujahidin are showing very strong resistance," the Taliban spokesman said.
According to reports, Taliban also attacked Military Academy Compound in Jalalabad road, District No 9 of Kabul. In Logar province, Taliban militants attacked a police compound, PRT Compound and provincial Intelligence Department.

In Paktia province also, Taliban attacked police Regional Zone Compound, airport, police headquarters and Intelligence Department. "The fighting is going on in all the provinces," Mujahed said.The attackers also fired rockets at the parliament building and at the Russian embassy, officials said. The embassies were not immediately available to comment.
Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Sunday expressed Pakistan's deep concerns over reports of attacks in Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan."Pakistan strongly condemns terrorism in all formsand has consistently encouraged dialogue to resolve issues in Afghanistan," Khar said.
The Foreign Minister also said that Pakistan stands in solidarity with all Afghan brothers and sisters suffering the continuous violence and instability in the country.Media agencies